On August 29, 2007, the Associated Press reported on a dangerous development in the food industry:
“A California produce company recalled bagged fresh spinach Wednesday after it tested positive for salmonella. There were no immediate reports of illness linked to the tainted spinach, distributed by Metz Fresh LLC of King City, Calif. The recall comes nearly a year after an outbreak of another pathogen, E. coli, in fresh spinach killed three people and sickened another 200.”[1]
Although food was the cause of illness and death in the E. coli incident, people did not blame all foods for the dilemma. For this reason, the company in California a year later only recalled the infected spinach instead of every edible item in super markets and shopping centers.
What is the point? Some people refuse to place their faith in Christ or attend church because they claim that the church is “filled with hypocrites.” True, there are some hypocrites in the church and this is not a new development. After all, one of Jesus’ disciples was a hypocrite! Just as no one should judge the early church by Judas’s actions, people should not judge the 21st century church by the actions of those who claim to be servants of Christ yet deny Him by their actions.
James S. Spiegel put it well when he said, “[Atheists] rightly condemn those who abuse belief in God, but then they proceed to reject that belief rather than just its abusers. It should be duly noted that the fact that there is such a thing as theistic malpractice is, in a sense, a confirmation of the Christian doctrine of sin. That there would be abusers of religion and Christianity in particular is just what we should expect if the Christian worldview is true.”[2]
Just as we should not condemn all food because of E. coli-laced bags of spinach, neither should Christianity or the church be condemned because of a few hypocrites!
[1] “Bagged spinach recalled over salmonella fears: No immediate reports of illness linked to tainted product from California.” http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20498998/ns/health-diet_and_nutrition/. Accessed 28 March, 2011.
[2] James S. Spiegel, The Making of an Atheist: How Immorality Leads to Unbelief (Chicago: Moody, 2010), 38.
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